Marketing a new African God: Pentecostalism and material salvation in Ghana

Abstract

Pentecostalism is an American creation that has been exported to various parts of the world. Its message of hope is produced and promoted by churches that are led by religious entrepreneurial salespeople who create value for customers through the use of marketing techniques that facilitate the blending of the local and the global; the sacred and the profane. Its success in Africa has been attributed to the African penchant for connecting every human experience to the religious. Using the marketing strategic framework of target market and four Ps as an organization tool, we draw on a year‐long ethnography in Kumasi, Ghana, to suggest that Pentecostalism in Ghana is marketed as an effective route to material success without risk to postmortem salvation. While the effective blend of the sacred and the profane allows for open public discourse, it fails to deliver on its promise of economic salvation for the poor. In fact, it causes the condition of the poor to deteriorate even further through application of its fundamental requirement: give and God will bless you according to the extent of your giving. We conclude that the new African Pentecostalism and its open embrace of contemporary consumption and materialism have arrested local religiosity and imposed an “economic imperialism” that impregnates every human experience with a commercial character. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Rhetorical Analysis of Resistance to Environmentalism As Enactment of Morality Play between Social and Ecological Well‐Being

“…Corresponding to this myth, early colonial Americans believed that Satan ruled the wilderness and only through subjugation by God's chosen people could the wilderness be redeemed (Hughes ). Capitalistic consumption as divine blessings and redemption has been alluded to by other research on religion and consumption behavior (Bonsu and Belk ; Gerde, Goldsby, and Shepard ). RGD appears to embrace the stance that the success of capitalism and the consumption opportunities provided through capitalistic endeavors are symbols of divine blessing and that remonstrating capitalistic consumption activities is against the will of God.…”

Materialism, consumerism, and religion: A Buddhist vision for nonprofit marketing

“…Skousgaard () pointed out that consumer researchers lack a clear understanding of what spirituality is and how it affects consumer choices and that there exists a paucity of studies that explicitly focus on spiritual motivations for consumption. In a study of the relationship between materialism and religion, Bonsu and Belk () noted the use of direct and subtle promises of material wealth, to attract and encourage new converts and selling the latter on the expectation of economic gains and material salvation, in their lives, on adoption of the new religion. Bonsu and Belk () deliberated that this view blended the poor's reality into the realm of the spiritual, using consumption as a salvation‐oriented religious tool for conversion.…”

“…In a study of the relationship between materialism and religion, Bonsu and Belk () noted the use of direct and subtle promises of material wealth, to attract and encourage new converts and selling the latter on the expectation of economic gains and material salvation, in their lives, on adoption of the new religion. Bonsu and Belk () deliberated that this view blended the poor's reality into the realm of the spiritual, using consumption as a salvation‐oriented religious tool for conversion. They went on to note that the new consumer defines herself more on the basis of her divine right of access to local religiosity and material wealth than by her religious piety and the pursuit of eternal salvation.…”

“…They went on to note that the new consumer defines herself more on the basis of her divine right of access to local religiosity and material wealth than by her religious piety and the pursuit of eternal salvation. Bonsu and Belk () further noted that rather than unsettling conventional foundations of religious legitimacy, their study reflected on the capacity of religion to respond to market challenges and highlighted the fact that religion is not immune to the totalizing effect of contemporary global consumer culture. The authors pointed out the need for research in the domain of the significant interaction between religion and consumption, rather than focusing on the separate aspects of the sacred and the profane.…”

The international expansion of religious organizations in Africa

“…Many evangelical communities were responsible for building schools and hospitals, providing income‐generating activities and micro‐financing in several African rural areas. Bonsu and Belk (, p. 307) supported this idea by their historical analysis of Wesleyan religious communities' implementation in Ghana through ‘the provision of educational facilities’. Evangelical churches thus become ‘places of healing and compensation for those who are unsettled by their difficulty in finding a professional or social status’ (Dorier‐Apprill and Ziavoula, , p. 137).…”